By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Axie Infinity was the best performing cryptocurrency in the top 30 on Thursday morning, trading just below its all-time high hit last month of $163.66.
Axie Infinity is a non-fungible token (NFT) video game that is based on the Ethereum blockchain. The trading and battling game allows players to collect, breed, raise, battle, and trade creatures, known as “axies”, which are digitised NFTs.
The latest upside coincides with news that Katana, the Ronin decentralised exchange, has now gone live. Katana will allow any user to easily swap between the various assets within the Axie Infinity ecosystem and from the launch, users can now trade between Axie Infinity, Smooth Love Potion, USD Coin, and Wrapped Ethereum, according to the official press release.
“With Ronin’s release, the Axie nation has entered a new age,” the press release said. “Economic activity is booming and we’ve welcomed new citizens at a rate that’s shocked the world. Today, we take one step closer to a more prosperous future for our digital nation.”
The developers have also unveiled RON, the token which powers the Ronin decentralised exchange. The token will eventually be used to pay gas fees and secure the network for both Axie Infinity and future games and products hosted on the chain.
To incentivise Katana liquidity, 10% of the total RON supply will be rewarded to liquidity providers who stake their deposits in both SLP/ETH and AXS/ETH. The rewards for these pools will be activated later this week.
Where to next for Axie Infinity?
According to Synergia Capital Head of Research Denis Vinokourov, new highs could be just around the corner.
“Expect a break above [the all-time high] to trigger another upside burst as the momentum following crowd joins in,” Vinokourov wrote. “The sector as a whole is expected to continue to benefit from the inflow of capital and the growing interest from mainstream vendors, with a whole host of names trying to come up with their own versions of "metaverse" and incentive programs.”